DURHAM — The inability to win back-to-back games in the last two months of the season plagued the University of New Hampshire hockey team right to the end.

The Wildcats struggled to establish consistency during the second half, and consequently the season ended in the final of an NCAA regional for the fourth time in five years.

They dropped a 2-0 decision to UMass-Lowell last Saturday at Manchester’s Verizon Wireless Arena, falling one win short of the Frozen Four for the third time as the host school.

“I don’t think we’ll get over that for a while,” said sophomore defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. “It stings a little bit and motivates you through the summer.”

“The ending was tough,” said coach Dick Umile.

Made tougher by the fact UNH had to face the defensive-minded River Hawks without its two most skilled forwards.

Junior Kevin Goumas and sophomore Grayson Downing both suffered head injuries in last Friday’s first-round victory over Denver. They combined for 25 goals and 73 points this season. Their replacements had eight.

“Even without Goumas and Downing the guys played hard on Saturday,” Umile said. “I hate to say it, but I thought we might have pulled it off. I’m not making excuses, but we just didn’t have enough offense to challenge.”

UMass-Lowell snapped a scoreless tie with less than 30 seconds left in the second period. That’s all the River Hawks and freshman goalie Connor Hellebuyck needed.

“It was going to be an uphill battle,” van Riemsdyk said. “We had confidence in the guys we had dressed, but any time you lose your top two centers you’re going to have a tough time winning a regional final, especially against a team like Lowell that’s so committed to the defensive system that they have.”“It was definitely disappointing,” said junior defenseman Eric Knodel. “We knew we had a special team this year that could go places with the talent we had. Unfortunately it didn’t work out for us.”

The Wildcats also had trouble winning close games. They were 4-8 in one-goal games this year to go along with seven ties.

UNH went 4-6-5 in its last 15 games.

“It’s always frustrating when you can’t string wins together,” van Riemsdyk said, “especially when I don’t think the majority of the time were playing that bad. I thought we were playing good hockey, we just weren’t getting the results we wanted. That’s kind of what the end of the year is about — getting the results.”

The Wildcats had plenty of good results in the first half after getting off to one of the best starts in the program’s history that included losing just one of their first 14 games.

Anxious to put last season behind them after missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in more than a decade, they were even ranked first in the country at one point.

“After last season we wanted to come back to the power that we usually have at this university,” Knodel said. “We had a great first half. The second half was a little shaky at times.”

UNH had two four-game win streaks in the first half and one three-game win streak. However, the Wildcats couldn’t maintain the momentum after Christmas.

They won back-to-back games only twice in the second half, but not on the same weekend. Still, they were in contention for the Hockey East regular-season championship until the final weekend.

UNH managed only one of a possible four points at home against Maine and dropped into a three-way tie for third, two points out of first.

“The guys got themselves there,” Umile said. “They competed hard down the stretch. It was the Maine weekend that kind of did us in.”

The Wildcats also failed to make it to Boston and the Hockey East semifinals for the fourth time in five years.

“We know we should have done better,” Knodel said. “We played well up until the end.”

Living off the first half in which they went 5-0-0 against Frozen Four teams UMass-Lowell and St. Cloud State, they qualified for the NCAA Tournament after a one-year hiatus.

“It was big for us to get off to a good start,” Knodel said. “It sets you up for the rest of the year pretty much.”

But the Wildcats couldn’t build off it. Despite the second-half struggles, they remained confident they could make a deep playoff run.

“We knew it was a team that could do it,” Umile said. “I think we felt that way going into the NCAA Tournament.”

Looking ahead, the Wildcats return their top three scorers next season, including Goumas and Downing, and eight of their top 10. Four of their top six defensemen will be back as well as their top two goalies.

“We’ve got a good group coming back,” Umile said, “but that doesn’t guarantee anything. We’ve got to be ready to play.”